Now that Amazon is getting even more evil than it has been for a long time, by shoving AI into every ebook uploaded to them, I am seriously contemplating taking my books away from Amazon.
I can actually do this because
1) my books have been widely available elsewhere for years and I have a somewhat established presence "wide"
2) I have my own store set up through PayHip, so people can buy direct, if they want to (still need to put everything in there).
1/n
2/n
3) I have a presence here on Mastodon which is already shifting visibility - and people here are much more willing to buy direct and own the ebook they got.
4) I have a day job that pays my bills. I do not rely on book sales for my livelihood. I can take the hit to royalties because I never depended on them anyway.
5) I have taken the steps to kill my publishing business at the end of the year. I guess that was more prescient than I even knew a week ago.
3/n
So leaving Amazon is doable for me. And it feels like the right move.
But I'm just one little indie author.
Amazon is not going to miss me. It's not even going to miss a thousand indie authors leaving them. They won't care.
They will only care if readers leave them - and that's where you come in.
So in the next toot, I'll list a few options of getting your ebooks and print books away from Amazon - feel free to post your own recommendations below that.
4/n
Options for getting ebooks (and print) away from Amazon.
This is what I have explored, and I know there is much, much more out there.
1) Smaller stores: Smashwords, Kobo, B&N, Thalia (Tolino) in Germany (although they are also evil), BoD, and many more.
I absolutely recommend Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/
2) Buy direct.
My store is through PayHip, and you may not even be aware that PayHip has its own book catalog:
5/n
What else can you, dear reader, do?
There's quite a lot, even if you're not yet willing to give up your Kindle.
1) Buy direct. Buy direct, buy direct, buy direct.
It's really easy to put books on your Kindle that you bought elsewhere. I just wrote a blog post to teach you that:
https://www.hannah-steenbock.de/how-to-add-an-ebook-to-your-kindle/
So there's no need to give up your Kindle just yet. But show interest in eReaders that are open source and let you read all books.
6/n
2) Talk to your favorite authors and tell them how you would prefer to buy from them.
Authors who earn all their income from Amazon will be scared. They need to know there is a market outside of it.
Some are already experimenting with selling direct for a week or two before going exclusive with Amazon.
Support that!
3) Stop writing reviews on Amazon
Put them on Bookwyrm instead.
https://bookwyrm.social/
No, do not use Goodreads. It belongs to Amazon.
7/7
Of course, this all needs to be seen in a wider context:
Stepping away from tech giants like Amazon is also part of a rebellion against the billionaires who are destroying our world out of pure greed.
By not giving Amazon money, you are voting with your dollars and euros and whatever currency you're using.
You are choosing actual human beings - in this case us indie authors - over tech bros who don't give a rat's arse about people.
Let's do this!
I turned my rant into a (slightly expanded) blog post, if you want to share this off Mastodon:
https://www.hannah-steenbock.de/amazons-ai-plans-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/
I have another thought about Amazon's AI "ask this book"-feature.
It means
- scanning every book into a database
- analyzing every book for plot, characters, descriptions etc.
- storing reader questions and answers
It's a training ground.
In other words, they are using our books and the readers' interest to train their OWN WRITING BOT.
Why are they doing this?
To cut out the creators. Just like Spotify, Amazon wants to produce AI books that sell.
Amazon knows that Spotify amplifies its profits using AI sound-alike music.
Instead of listening to the original artist and having that translated into a residual paid to the creators, Spotify rips off that copyright & keeps the money it stole.
Amazon will be doing the same; marketing cheap knock-off counterfeits & profiting from plagiarism.
Every one of these products is a cheat.
No, my books are not in Audible or Audio format.
The one exception are the Wolf books, which are in audio in the Google Play Store, with an auto-narrator (which is not great, admittedly).
I will look into Libro.
My problem is that I can't really afford human narrators (shame!), but they deserve to be paid well. My books don't earn me that kind of money.
I totally understand that you want to keep your books. I would never pressure anyone to give up books - but glad you're looking.
@Firlefanz I am not willing to give up my Kindle.
I am, however, willing to give up Amazon, and books with DRM.
I pay for my books.
Can't do paper any more, vision. But I buy the books, and then I find a way to get them in epub or mobi.
I copy them manually to my kindle, which reads them just fine.
Thank you!
Amazon no longer supports mobi, so you'll be fine with epub.
You can even email them to your Kindle:
https://www.hannah-steenbock.de/how-to-add-an-ebook-to-your-kindle/
Perfectly fine. Good choice!
In fact, you'll find that I sell my ebooks through PayHip, DRM-free, with delivery through BookFunnel.
I wish we could get a movement going with indie authors creating an open-source, completely independent book catalogue leading to their stores.
Not very optimistic, though. Convenience often trumps everything else. Amazon knows that.
That would be very cool.
I mean, I'm all for people power and such, but sadly convenience generally tops decency.
I would love to use bookshop org, but they do not let indie authors publish with them just yet.
No easy interface, no easy access.
They are not good for indies just yet. I wish they were.
Hannah Steenbock
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